Shares in the antibody discovery platform developer, advancing UBC research, opened at more than three times their IPO price to net it a valuation topping $15bn.
AbCellera, a Canada-based developer of an antibody drug discovery platform based on University of British Columbia research, floated on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday in a $483m initial public offering that also provided an exit to University of Minnesota.
The company priced just over 24.1 million shares, upsized from 23 million, at $20 each, above the $17 to $18 range it set for the offering. Its shares opened at $61 on Friday and closed at $58.90 to give it a valuation of almost $15.7bn.
AbCellera has created an artificial intelligence-powered antibody discovery platform that scans a database of the human immune systems to find antibodies with the potential to form the basis of drug treatments. It made a $1.9m net profit in the first nine months of 2020 from $25.2m in revenue.
The company’s partners include pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly, which is collaborating with it on LY-CoV555, a potential antibody treatment for covid-19. The IPO proceeds will support the further enhancement of its technology and the growth of its business development team and marketing activities.
Eli Lilly took part in AbCellera’s last round, a $105m series B round in May this year that was co-led by OrbiMed and DCVC Bio and backed by University of Minnesota, Viking Global Investors, Founders Fund, Presight Capital, Baker Brothers, Harvard Management Private Equity Corporation and Thiel Capital.
The round came after a $10m series A led by DCVC Bio in 2018 following $820,000 from undisclosed investors the previous year.
The only two investors to hold 5% or more of AbCellera pre-IPO were DCVC Bio, owner of a 12.4% diluted to 11%, and Viking Global, which holds a 7.2% stake diluted from 8%.
The company is also converting the $90m it paid to acquire Trianni, the developer of a system that can isolate monoclonal antibodies, last month, into equity shares.
Joint book-running managers Credit Suisse, Stifel, Berenberg, SVB Leerink and BMO Capital Markets have 30 days to buy approximately 6.22 million shares which would lift the size of the offering to more than $555m, a move that will likely be confirmed today or tomorrow.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.